Takayama Ai

"Team A's Captain, I am Takahashi Minami the 7th."

Ai Takayama (高山愛) is a member of Team A, of which she also is the Captain. She is currently a successor, holding the name of Takahashi Minami the 7th. Now, the nickname she is most commonly associated with is Takamina (たかみな), however, prior to succession, she was also referred to as TakAi (TakAi) or Aicchi (あいッチ). She does also have a solo career.

Appearance
Minami is rather plain, especially considering she’s from Atamistar. She is also rather short. Her eyes are green, and her hair is pale blue. Much like all 00 members, she has heart lining in her eyes and hair. She commonly wears her hair in a ponytail, although at times, also wears a parted ponytail.

Before she succeeded, she had shoulder length hair that she wore let down. She also had two longer strands of hair that hung down before her shoulders.

Personality
Minami wouldn’t count herself as anything special; she doesn’t view herself to be over everyone else. However, despite this, she isn't insecure, she knows her value, and knows that if she really wants something, and if she's willing to work hard enough for it, then she know that she can achieve it.

While she isn’t as frequent with it as some other members, Takamina does always – when not in uniform – keep her phone with her for the sake of being able to practise choreography on the spot whenever she has some free time.

History
Minami was born on Atamistar, and because of this, the beach holds a special place in her heart. And, seeing as Atamistar doesn’t have an Entertainment ban, Minami grew up with AKB0048 all around her. Because AKB0048 commonly did gravure shoots on the planet, Minami got to meet the members from time to time, but in spite of this, she didn’t feel like joining AKB0048 until she reached the age of 12.

Encountering AKB0048
Minami has known about AKB0048 all her life, but for the majority of it, she was content with being a fan to support the group. This, however, changed when she saw her first concert live, when she was 12. When she spoke with her family about it, they were very supportive and encouraged her to try to join, even if they were also a little bit concerned, seeing how the idol group hadn’t been very successful for the past couple years. She used the time that was left until the auditions opened to practise her singing and dancing, and although she wasn’t perfect by any means, she was accepted.

Succession
Takamina, as every successor prior to succession, had the fever of succession a few days before her actual succession concert, it wasn't anything major; she mainly felt a bit sluggish and had a slight fever.

She was one of the members whose succession was the most wanted by some members, there even being a campaign created by some of them under the tag “#AiForTakamina” (which Chiyo even added onto the large screen on the succession concert itself). Her succession concert was named “Ai wo Shinjiteru” as a nod to her own name, her part in Sore wa Yorokobi Desu, as well as the pun in general.

Team History
150th Generation → Team 00 & 150th Generation → Team A & 150th Generation → Team A
 * Joining the 150th Generation of Trainees (SC0122.11.18)
 * Promoted to Team 00 (SC0123.06.07)
 * Transferred to Team A (SC0123.10.31)
 * Succeeded and subsequently left the 150th Generation (SC0124.02.03)

Etymology
Takayama in Kanji is written 高山.

高 (“Taka”) translates to “High” and 山 (“Yama”) translates to “Mountain”.

Ai in Kanji is written 愛.

愛 (“Ai”) translates to “Love”.

Quotes
Hint: Hover over the quotes.
 * "Team A’s Captain, I am Takahashi Minami the 7th." - Takamina’s onstage catchphrase
 * "Doing my best even if I fail, I will always look towards the future with a smile, I'm Takayama Ai, understudy of AKB0048's 150th generation!" - Ai's onstage catchphrase
 * "I'm no witch, if that's what you're implying." - Takamina, as Ai, replying to a comment Miyagi made.